Number of Hungry People Increased in 1990s

The number of hungry people in the world
increased in the second half of the 1990s, reversing a
decrease in world hunger during the first half of the
decade, the United Nations reports.

In a November 25 press
release, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)
said that unless the number of people experiencing chronic
hunger is reduced by 26 million a year, the international
agreed goal of significantly reducing hunger by 2015 cannot
be achieved. The goal was adopted at the 2002 World Food
Summit in Rome. Twenty-six million people is 12 times the
number of people lifted from chronic hunger during the
1990s, the FAO said.

The agency's recently released
report, "The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003,"
says 842 million people were undernourished in 1999-2001,
the latest period for which statistics were available,
according to the release.

Only 19 countries, FAO said,
reduced the number of undernourished throughout the 1990s
while in 26 countries the number of hungry people increased.
Hunger went down in 22 countries during the second half of
the 1990s, it said.

The release said hunger persists in
countries that have frequent food emergencies, such as
famines, and high rates of HIV/AIDS.

It said trade and
improved farm productivity in poor countries can have a
major impact on reducing world hunger.

To help guide
countries in their efforts to reduce hunger, FAO has
proposed an Anti-Hunger Program. The program would join
governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the
private sector to "mobilize the political will, technical
expertise and financial resources to reduce the number of
hungry people by at least half by 2015," according to
Hartwig de Haen, a FAO assistant
director-general.

Following is the text of FAO's press
release:

UN FAO LAUNCHES WORLD HUNGER REPORTON
THE EVE OF THANKSGIVING DAY HOLIDAY

Though Some Countries
Have Reduced Hunger,Latest FAO Report Shows a Setback in
the War Against Hunger

25 November 2003, Washington, DC --
Hunger is on the rise again after falling steadily during
the first half of the 1990s, according to the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization's (FAO) annual hunger
report.

"FAO's latest estimates signal a setback in the
war against hunger," says "The State of Food Insecurity in
the World 2003" (SOFI 2003). Given the rate at which hunger
has declined since 1990 on average, the World Food Summit
goal of reducing the number of undernourished people by half
by 2015 cannot be reached.

After reducing the number of
hungry people in developing countries by 37 million during
the first half of the 1990s, that number increased by 18
million in the second half of the decade.

According to
Hartwig de Haen, FAO Assistant Director-General, Economic
and Social Department, "The goal can only be reached if the
recent trend of increasing numbers is reversed. The annual
reductions must be accelerated to 26 million per year, more
than 12 times the pace of 2.1 million per year achieved
during the 1990s."

Each year SOFI assesses the state of
hunger in the world and looks at how much progress is being
made in reducing hunger. The publication also highlights
where countries stand in their battle to defeat hunger and
looks at what methods are producing success stories and what
problems are preventing success in other regions and
countries.

Worldwide, FAO estimates that 842 million
people were undernourished in 1999-2001, the most recent
years for which figures are available. This includes 10
million in the industrialized countries, 34 million in
countries in transition and 798 million in developing
countries.

Regionally, only Latin American and the
Caribbean had a decline in the number of hungry since the
mid-1990s.

Only 19 countries, including China, succeeded
in reducing the number of undernourished throughout the
1990s, says the report. "In these successful countries, the
total number of hungry people fell by over 80 million." At
the other end of the scale are 26 countries where the number
of undernourished people increased by 60 million during the
same period, including countries in transition where those
suffering from hunger climbed from 25 million in the
mid-1990s to 34 million at the turn of the
century.

Twenty-two countries, including Bangladesh, Haiti
and Mozambique, succeeded in turning the tide against
hunger. In these countries, "the number of undernourished
declined during the second half of the decade after rising
through the first five years," the report said. "In 17 other
countries, however, the trend shifted in the opposite
direction and the number of undernourished people, which had
been falling, began to rise. This group includes a number of
countries with large populations, among them India,
Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sudan."

According to the
report, several countries in Central and West Africa have
seen their numbers of hungry people rise due to
conflict.

In a number of successful countries, including
China, progress slowed after dramatic gains in reducing
hunger had been made in the early 1990s. Having reduced
chronic undernourishment to moderate or low levels, the
report says, "these countries can no longer be expected to
propel progress for the developing world."

According to
Mr. de Haen, "The SOFI project has provided us with many
insights about hunger. Through SOFI we are learning more
everyday about what works to reduce hunger and what causes
increased numbers of people to suffering from
undernourishment. We are now in a position to make very
specific recommendations that countries can follow to
alleviate hunger and malnutrition sustainably."

According
to the report, preliminary analysis suggests that countries
with significantly higher economic and agricultural growth
had the most success in reducing hunger. Other factors that
contributed to success include lower population growth and
higher levels of economic and social development. Those
countries with high prevalence of chronically hungry people
are also afflicted by frequent food emergencies and high
rates of HIV/AIDs.

In fact, the report says, the southern
African food crisis of 2002-2003 showed that "hunger cannot
be combated effectively in regions ravaged by AIDS, unless
interventions address the particular needs of AIDS-affected
households and incorporate measures both to prevent and to
mitigate the spread of HIV/AIDS."

Some 60 to 70 percent of
farms have suffered labor losses as a result of HIV/AIDS and
lacking the labor, resources and know-how to grow staple and
commercial crops, many households are now cultivating
survival foods. Others have abandoned their fields
entirely.

SOFI 2003 also looks at the impact of water on
food security and hunger, calling drought "the single most
common cause of severe food shortages in developing
countries." Africa stands as a stark example of this, being
both the driest continent in the developing world and the
continent with the most prevalent hunger.

FAO reports that
achieving food security in countries where water is scarce
and the environment is fragile may rely on what is known as
"virtual water," through the import of food from countries
with an abundance of water. For example, FAO calculates that
to grow the amount of food imported by Near Eastern
countries in 1994 it would have taken as much water as the
total annual flow of the Nile at Aswan. In such conditions,
says FAO, "it may make sense to import food and use limited
water resources for other purposes, including growing high
value crops for export."

SOFI 2003 also includes a 6-page
special feature: "Trade and food security: the importance of
agriculture and agricultural trade in developing
countries."

"International trade can have a major impact
on reducing hunger and poverty in developing countries,"
says FAO. "Overall countries that are more involved in trade
tend to enjoy higher rates of economic
growth."

Agriculture and agricultural trade play a
particularly important role in both the national economies
and the food security of developing countries. "Countries
where more than 15 percent of the population goes hungry
spend more than twice as much of their export earnings to
import food as more food-secure countries," according to the
report.

"But," says FAO, "their poverty and limited
trading activities constrict both their export earnings and
their ability to buy more food on international
markets."

The report details successful hunger reduction
programs in Brazil, Panama, Kenya and Viet Nam. It also
urges the wider adoption and support of the global
Anti-Hunger Program that FAO has proposed recently.

The
Anti-Hunger Program outlines a twin-track approach that
advocates a combination of measures that increase the
agricultural productivity in poorer rural communities with
action to give hungry people immediate access to the food
they need.

The FAO proposed Anti-Hunger Program sets out
priorities and budgets for action in five areas: Improving
agricultural productivity in poor rural communities;
developing and conserving natural resources; expanding rural
infrastructure and market access; strengthening capacity for
knowledge generation and dissemination; and, ensuring access
to food for the most needy.

"Ultimately," said Mr. de
Haen, "success in reducing hunger will depend on mustering
the political will to engage in policy reforms and invest
resources where they can do the most good for the poor and
hungry.

"That's why," said Mr. de Haen, "FAO has endorsed
proposals to build an international Alliance against Hunger.
An alliance that would start at sub-national and national
levels bringing together governments, civil society
organizations, the private sector and concerned individuals
to mobilize the political will, technical expertise and
financial resources needed to reduce the number of hungry
people by at least half by
2015.

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